Venezuelan President Chavez Attacks Bush on Iraq

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez received the loudest applause at the UN yesterday. Chavez' speech to the Un included attacking Bush's Iraq plan, asking that the UN move to another country more resepctful of the UH's principles, and accusations that the US' consumption of gasoline is shameful.
----------------------------------

Chavez Takes Bush to Task Over Iraq War
Friday September 16, 2005 10:31 AM
By KIM GAMEL
Associated Press Writer

UNITED NATIONS ( AP) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez took President Bush to task in front of a global summit for waging war in Iraq without U.N. consent and won rousing applause for his critique.

The leftist leader told a U.N. summit on Thursday that fighting the war without U.N. authorization showed Washington did not respect the world body. He recommended moving U.N. headquarters to a country that has more regard for the organization.

``There were never weapons of mass destruction but Iraq was bombed, and over U.N. objections, (it was) occupied and continues being occupied,'' Chavez said. Bush alleged that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction but none have been found, shattering one of his main arguments for going to war.

``That's why we propose to this assembly that the United Nations leave this country, which is not respectful of the very resolutions of this assembly,'' Chavez said.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
World leaders at the summit had been asked to speak for five minutes but Chavez ran long and when the presiding diplomat passed him a note saying his time was up, he threw it on the floor. He said if Bush could speak for 20 minutes, so could he.

When he finally stopped, he got what observers said was the loudest applause of the summit.

. . . . . .
Chavez, whose country is the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, also warned the world is facing an unprecedented energy crisis.

He told reporters later the crisis will keep growing, ``not because we the producers want it but because we are running out of oil.''

Chavez singled out the United States as the most wasteful country, saying he was shocked when a quarter of all the cars he counted Thursday morning on New York streets had one person in them.

``That's crazy, one person with a huge car ... that is using up gas and polluting the atmosphere,'' he said at a news conference. ``The world cannot tolerate this model of development called the American way of life.''

In a form of energy diplomacy, Chavez has extended a preferential oil trade deal called PetroCaribe to 13 Caribbean countries in what he says is part of a plan to challenge U.S. economic domination of the region.

Under the plan, Venezuela will soon sell up to 190,000 barrels of fuel a day to countries from Jamaica to St. Lucia, offering favorable financing while shipping fuel directly to reduce costs. It is expected to help those countries save millions of dollars.

Read More